{"id":24696,"date":"2018-02-09T09:31:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T08:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/?p=24696"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:48:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:48:38","slug":"the-new-technological-wave-thats-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/2018\/02\/the-new-technological-wave-thats-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you ready to surf the new technological wave that\u2019s coming?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A look back in time\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 1992 I went to the Expo in Sevilla<\/a>. I was 15 then, but I have a very clear memory of the time. It was roasting hot, and after 5 tiring days, I can assure you I visited all the pavilions making up that incredible Universal Exhibition. With 158 participants from all over the world, the latest technical and technological advances of the time were on display.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t remember hearing the word \u201cinternet\u201d in any of them. It seems rather incredible, right? The greatest technological innovation of recent decades, which was to shift the social and economic paradigm, the way in which we communicate with each other, do business, relate to each other\u2026 was not even mentioned in any of the pavilions of the 1992 Expo.<\/p>\n

An innovation can appear at any time, in any place, and change everything in a very short space of time<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The sixth wave is coming<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Internet as we know it was born in 1991 with the advent of the World Wide Web (www). That\u2019s almost yesterday, but today we have an increasing number of devices, new and different ways of communicating and connecting with each other, myriad applications which keep on growing, and new business models, all based on the web.<\/p>\n

Obviously, it\u2019s not the first time something like this has happened. Economic development in modern history has often been driven by major disruptive inventions which very quickly did away with existing practices, setting the pace of progress within society.<\/p>\n

In 1953, Russian economist Nikol\u00e1i Kondr\u00e1tieff<\/a> proposed the theory that global development happens in \u201clong-term cycles\u201d of around 50 years, in which periods of economic growth are followed by periods of depression, and that these cycles can be represented as a sinusoidal curve, now called \u201cKondratieff waves<\/strong>\u201d.
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